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FYI

Voting Open For Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize

Until Oct. 18 you can cast a ballot for 12 nominated albums up for inclusion in the prestigious hall of fame for releases from the pre-Polaris era.

Voting Open For Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize

By FYI Staff

Voting for the 2021 Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize has opened, with an Oct. 18 deadline. As with its companion award, the Polaris Music Prize, winners and nominees for the Heritage Prize are also Canadian albums of artistic distinction, without regard to sales, genre or affiliation. This is the Polaris version of a hall of fame which seeks to honour meritorious Canadian albums that pre-date when Polaris began in 2006. 


An 11 person group of Canadian music media and historians gather together each year to create a vote-curated list of 12 Short List-nominated albums from which one album is chosen as a winner via a public vote. Separately, a second album is also chosen by the Heritage Prize jury. The winning albums will be revealed on Oct. 26.

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This year there are 12 nominated albums up for consideration: 

Lillian Allen - Revolutionary Tea Party

k.d. lang - Ingénue

Jean Leloup - Le Dôme

Corb Lund - Five Dollar Bill

Michie Mee and L.A. Luv - Jamaican Funk-Canadian Style

Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark

Jackie Mittoo - Wishbone

Faith Nolan - Africville

Nomeansno - Wrong

Stars - Set Yourself On Fire

Rufus Wainwright - Rufus Wainwright

Weakerthans - Left and Leaving

This year’s Heritage list features five returning nominees (k.d. lang, Jean Leloup, Joni Mitchell, Jackie Mittoo, and Weakerthans) and seven first-time contenders (Lillian Allen, Corb Lund, Michie Mee and L.A. Luv, Faith Nolan, Nomeansno, Stars and Rufus Wainwright). 

Go HERE to vote.  Voters can submit ballots once per day. 

Heritage Prize winners are commemorated with limited-edition artwork commissioned and inspired by the music on these designated albums. Examples of past winners’ works, including those honouring the likes of last year’s winners Buffy Sainte-Marie, Main Source and Beverly Glenn-Copeland can be found HERE.

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Panos A. Panay
Raphaële Sohier

Panos A. Panay

Features

Recording Academy President Panos A. Panay on Canada, Diljit Dosanjh and the Grammys’ Global Future

The influential music executive returned to a place he has called home at NXNE for the Billboard Global Summit. Here's why it was particularly meaningful for him.

The music landscape is changing quickly, and Panos A. Panay, the President of the Recording Academy and the Grammys, is right in the middle of it.
This week (June 11), Panay interviewed Punjabi superstar Diljit Dosanjh as part of the Billboard Summit at NXNE. For him, it represented a global shift in music where sounds carrying different cultures and languages are pushing against the "Anglo-American" mainstream. Celebrating the universality of music in the diverse city of Toronto holds special meaning for him.
Panay spent some formative years in Canada, and says in some ways he considers it as much like home as Cyprus, where he was born. It shaped how he sees the world and his career, and it's been important in his work at the Grammys, which is also going through changes. Since he started his job in 2021, along with CEO Harvey Mason Jr., Panay has been helping the Academy adapt to a new generation of artists, represent diversity and navigate the changing music scene.

Before he was at the Recording Academy, Panay founded the online platform Sonicbids, which brought him to NXNE many times. Again, it feels like coming home.

In this exclusive interview with Billboard Canada, Panos discusses Dosanjh, how the Grammys are changing and the future of Canadian music.

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